


Mixtapes

by reddie-in-the-stars (miss_melilot)



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, Oh so fluffy, lots of cuteness, other losers are briefly mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-10 08:09:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12294993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_melilot/pseuds/reddie-in-the-stars
Summary: Eddie and Richie hang out after school as usual. But an unexpected gift from Richie sends everything spinning—in a good way.





	Mixtapes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [letgoofmygreggo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/letgoofmygreggo/gifts).



> Requested by @[letgoofmygreggo](http://letgoofmygreggo.tumblr.com/)/@[beepfuckingbeep](https://beepfuckingbeep.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr: 
> 
> "Would love to see something with reddie listening to mix tapes Richie made for Eddie together and just being soft and cute as Richie waits for Eddie to give him his review. (I'm a sucker for the tapes now)."
> 
> Hope you enjoy, babe!
> 
> Come say hi on Tumblr! [reddieinthestars.tumblr.com](http://reddieinthestars.tumblr.com/)

Eddie whistled softly to himself as he and Richie biked home from school. Richie yammered on about something or other next to him, but Eddie was focused on how the sun felt warm on his skin. Summer was approaching again—days lengthening, temperatures rising. A cool breeze still remained in the air, the last of April’s touches.

It had been eight months since they had defeated IT. Eight months of relative peace.

The Losers Club was stronger than ever. Stan and Bill seemed to smile at each other a lot now, though Eddie wondered if it was because Beverly had moved to live with her aunt in Portland. Ben pined after the missing redhead and mailed postcards to her at least weekly. They didn’t get to see as much of Mike as they wanted, since he was homeschooled, but they still got together every weekend.

Bev had written this week to let them know she would be coming up to visit for a couple of weeks in May. All of them were so excited, especially Ben

( _January embers, my heart burns there too_ )

the sweet lovesick fool.

Eddie smiled at the memory of Ben’s expression when he’d read Bev’s postcard with her arrival date. The poor boy looked like he didn’t know what had hit him. The love he had for Bev was so obvious, so pure. Eddie hoped it worked out.

“Eds, are you even listening to me?”

Eddie glanced over to see Richie pouting at him with a smiling glint behind those coke-bottle glasses.

“Nope,” Eddie said with a laugh.

“You wound me, Kaspbrak. Wounded!” Richie clutched his heart and pretended to fall off his bike.

Ah, Richie. Another Loser who was the same as always. Eddie smiled.

They were heading in the direction of Richie’s house, since they both lived on the same side of town and could bike between each other’s houses in about ten minutes. Richie’s parents were rarely home and never cared who was over anyway.

It was the complete opposite situation of Eddie’s home life; sometimes he found himself wishing he could trade, even though he knew Richie’s parents were the definition of awful. After Eddie had found out his mother had lied to him all these years about having a mysterious sickness as well as asthma

( _They’re gazebos! They’re_ bullshit!)

his relationship with her had never been the same. Sure, he remained a dutiful son, kissing his mother’s cheek whenever he left the house and smiling and nodding when she lectured him about his health, but no, it wasn’t the same. Not anymore.

They arrived at Richie’s house, dropping their bikes on the front lawn before racing up the stairs to Richie’s room, which was in total disarray as per usual. The bed was buried under mounds of clothes; notes and candy wrappers covered the floor. Richie’s desk had graded papers—mostly A’s and B’s, Eddie noticed with envy—tossed all over it, his textbooks stacked haphazardly. In all, it looked like the perfect reflection of Richie as a person.

“Jeez, Richie, how do you even sleep in here?” Eddie asked, frowning.

“I make do, Eds,” Richie replied, leaning over to pinch Eddie’s cheek. “You’re so cute worrying about me.”

Eddie pushed Richie’s hand away without much force. “I told you not to call me that, you fucktard.”

Richie laughed as he shoved some of the clothes off of his bed to make room for he and Eddie.

“Aww, you love it, Eds.”

Eddie snorted, plopping down on the bed after tossing his backpack on the floor. He hoped it wouldn’t get lost in the sea of whatever the hell covered Richie’s floor.

“Actually, Eds…Eddie. I kind of wanted to give you something.”

( _What are you looking for, Eddie?_ )

Eddie blinked, pushing the bad thoughts away. “Give me something?”

Richie stepped over to his desk, rummaging in the piles next to where an old boombox was hooked up. He turned around, holding up a cassette tape. “I, uh…I just wanted to give you some songs, is all. You know, since your music taste is shit, and you need some pointers.” Richie looked a bit sheepish, which told Eddie that Richie’s words were not true indicators of whatever Richie was feeling at the moment.

“If my music taste is shit, yours is the fucking worst,” Eddie replied with a slight smile. He took the proffered tape when Richie handed it to him. A sticker on the tape read “Just needed to tell you.”

_Just needed to tell me?_

“Do you want to listen to it now?” Eddie asked, looking up at Richie.

“I, uh—if you want to,” Richie spluttered.

Eddie’s eyes narrowed. Richie never stammered, and he was curious as to why he would be now. It was just music

( _just that old-time rock ‘n roll_ )

wasn’t it? Eddie stood. As stepped past Richie to get to the boombox, he could swear an electric current was in the air, some sort of static shock pulling Eddie to Richie. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Richie staring at him with an unreadable expression. Eddie’s shoulder brushed Richie’s arm, and Richie shivered.

Eddie did what he always did best. He ignored it.

He flipped the boombox’s “on” switch before sliding the tape into the player. He heard Richie sit down on the bed while Eddie pressed “play.”

_“Cum on feel the noize. Girls rock your boys. We’ll get wild, wild, wild—”_

“Quiet Riot,” Eddie said, amused. “You had to tell me about Quiet Riot?” He glanced over his shoulder to grin at Richie, but his smile faltered when he saw Richie blushing. _What the fuck is happening?_ Eddie inwardly shrugged and walked back over to sit beside Richie. He tucked his legs up under him, his arm and Richie’s shoulder touching again.

He listened mostly without a word as Quiet Riot gave way to Queen and David Bowie until When in Rome came on.

“But if you wait around a while, I’ll make you fall for me. I promise, I promise you I will,” Eddie sang along, eyes falling closed. He didn’t notice Richie staring at him with soft eyes.

When the next song came on, Eddie grinned and jumped up, pulling Richie off the bed. They laughed as they danced with fast, energetic, mostly random movements to The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout.” The dancing and breathless giggles continued through The Stone Roses and Black Sabbath, and then they shouted the words to Journey.

“Don’t stop believin’! Hold on to that feelin’!” Eddie yelled.

“Streetlight people, ooooooohhh!” Eddie laughed as Richie belted out the lyrics; Eddie absently noted that Richie held the notes without his voice breaking once. He was…he was _good_.

Eddie giggled as Richie flew into an exaggerated air guitar solo when “Up Around the Bend” by Creedence Clearwater Revival played, lip syncing while making faces at Eddie.

In the few seconds of silence before the next song, Eddie found himself staring at Richie as the other boy spun in a circle. Always moving, always laughing. It’s how Eddie felt when Richie was around. Even though he told Richie to shut up and to stop calling him by those incessant nicknames, Eddie always felt a smile in his heart while Richie did whatever crazy Richie thing came along. As long as Richie was beside him, Eddie felt as light as that cool breeze blowing through the April air outside.

When the next song started, Richie froze in place.

_“Looking from a window above, it’s like a story of love. Can you hear me?”_

The smile slipped from Eddie’s lips as Richie turned around to look at him. Eddie vaguely recognized the song—Yazoo, wasn’t it?—but he only had eyes for Richie, whose mouth had pressed into a firm line.

_“Came back only yesterday. I’m moving farther away. Want you near me.”_

Suddenly that electricity was back in the air. Eddie felt like he was being burned by it, running up and down his body and pushing his hair to stand on end. A bolt of it flew between him and Richie as Richie began mouthing the lyrics, still staring into Eddie’s eyes.

_“All I needed was the love you gave. All I needed for another day. And all I ever knew…Only you.”_

Eddie’s heart pounded a mile a minute. His legs felt weak, sagging under him like softened taffy. He took a step back from Richie’s heated gaze; his knees hit Richie’s bed, and he sat down hard. Because suddenly it made sense—what Richie “just needed to tell him.”

_“Sometimes when I think of her name, when it’s only a game, and I need you. Listen to the words that you say, it’s getting harder to stay…when I see you.”_

“Richie,” Eddie whispered as Richie’s gaze somehow grew more intense. It felt like fire pressing into Eddie’s skin, but the burning felt good instead of bad. “I…I…I don’t…”

Richie’s eyes seemed to fall—falling, falling. He looked down at his feet. “Oh…I…I’m sorry, Eds—”

“No!” Eddie and Richie both startled at Eddie’s sudden shout.

Richie looked back up at him.

“No, I…I didn’t mean…” Eddie trailed off, wondering what to say as the blatantly obvious pining love song continued playing in the background. As he gazed at Richie’s bespectacled face, which showed just the slightest trace of hope, Eddie’s mind wandered. He remembered Richie trying to so hard to help him after that fucking clown had broken his arm,

( _Eddie, don’t move. You’re going to be okay._ )

Richie’s eyes full of pain as though it were Richie who had the snapped limb. He remembered Richie’s hand sliding into his as they stood behind Bill

( _I want more than anything for you to be home_ )

who was talking with a Georgie who wasn’t Georgie. He remembered Richie’s hand on his shoulder as Bill sliced his palm

( _Just breathe, Eds_ )

and then Richie holding him so tight when he’d hugged the boy before leaving the barrens.

He thought about that tight feeling in his lower belly that he’d started noticing whenever Richie was around, especially whenever Richie smiled at him with that big goofy grin. He thought about how Richie always seemed to be standing next to him, touching him, hugging him, pinching his cheek. And despite what Eddie claimed, he didn’t hate it.

He…he loved it, just like Richie said. He…maybe he loved…

 _Can fourteen-year-olds be in love?_ He thought they could.

_“This is gonna take a long time, and I wonder what’s mine. Can’t take no more. Wonder if you’ll understand, it’s just the touch of your hand…behind a closed door.”_

“Richie,” Eddie whispered. “I—you—” He waved his hand between he and Richie, not sure how to say what he wanted to.

“I really like you, Eds,” Richie murmured. “I think I always have. I think I might even…love you.”

Eddie’s heart jolted at the words as Yazoo gave way to The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven.”

“You…you love me?” Eddie whispered, blush rising on his cheeks. For some reason he couldn’t explain, tears were welling in his eyes. He stared for a moment as twin tracks of tears trailed down his cheeks. He was feeling too much at once, his body on overload.

Richie looked alarmed. “Don’t cry, Eds! Fuck, I didn’t mean to make you to cry. You don’t—just forget I ever said anything. It’s okay, really. Fuck, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—”

Richie stopped rambling immediately as Eddie help up a hand. Eddie took a deep breath, wiping the tears away and standing. Richie looked like a deer caught in the headlights as Eddie stepped toward him, eyes locked.

“Don’t be sorry,” Eddie whispered as he stopped in front of Richie. “I’m…I’m glad you told me.”

Richie looked awestruck; Eddie let out a nervous giggle at the sight. He was sure his entire face and neck were a brilliant red

( _red as a balloon_ )

by now. 

“I think I kind of love you too,” Eddie said softly, lifting his hand to rest his palm—that same scarred palm—against Richie’s cheek. He felt Richie’s arms curl around his waist, pulling Eddie closer until their fronts were pressed together. Eddie smiled wide as Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is” came on in the background.

_“In my life, there’s been heartache and pain. I don’t know if I can face it again. Can’t stop now, I’ve traveled so far to change this lonely life.”_

Eddie’s arms came up to wrap around Richie’s neck. They stared at each other as they began to sway slowly to the music, turning in a circle in the middle of Richie’s messy room.

_“I want to know what love is. I want you to show me. I want to feel what love is. I know you can show me.”_

Richie leaned down, pressing his forehead against Eddie’s. Eddie shivered as Richie dared tilt forward, eyes fluttering shut as Richie gently brushed his lips against Eddie’s. The static electricity built higher and higher, shocking Eddie as their lips pulled apart before Eddie rose on tip toes to kiss Richie again. He felt his body coming alive at the touch, heat running through his limbs and arousal pulling in his lower body. He grunted softly as their lower halves brushed, Richie clearly feeling the same as Eddie. Richie yanked him somehow closer, one hand sliding into Eddie’s hair. Eddie moaned as Richie pulled at it, the slight pain feeling good somehow.

They broke apart with a gasp. Eddie felt tears in his eyelashes as he opened his eyes to look at Richie. He closed them again as Richie brushed his lips over Eddie’s eyelids, mouthing away the tears.

Eddie let out a high-pitched giggle, and Richie looked at him strangely. “Sorry,” Eddie whispered. “I just…I don’t even know how I feel right now.”

Richie nodded with a grin. “Me, too, Eds.”

“I told you to stop calling me that.”

“You love it. You love me.”

“Yeah, I do.”

Richie’s grin broadened as he took Eddie’s hands and pulled Eddie over to the bed. They laid down facing each other, legs tangled and hands still locked together. Eddie sighed, content, as Richie slipped his fingers between Eddie’s before leaning forward to touch their foreheads.

“I was not expecting this when you asked if I wanted to come over,” Eddie whispered, giggling again. Fuck, what was _wrong_ with him? He couldn’t stop fucking giggling like a fucking girl.

But Richie didn’t seem to care. “Well, I didn’t expect you to tell me you wanted to listen to the tape right here. Jesus, Eds, you nearly gave me a fucking heart attack when you said that.”

“You didn’t know how you were going to explain those fucking love songs, did you?” Richie’s grimace told Eddie everything, and he started laughing so hard, he snorted, which quickly had Richie rolling. They quieted after a few minutes of hysterics, Eddie flushing as Richie kissed him again.

Eddie lifted a hand to Richie’s face as he noticed the final song on the mixtape playing—Tracy Chapman.

_“You got a fast car. Is it fast enough so we can fly away? We gotta make a decision—leave tonight or live and die this way.”_

Eddie traced his fingers over Richie’s brow, down over the bridge of the other boy’s glasses and then nose. Richie reached up and took Eddie’s hand, pressing a kiss to the scar

( _Promise. Promise me that if IT isn’t dead, we’ll all come back_ )

on Eddie’s palm.

_“So remember we were driving, driving in your car, speed so fast I felt like I was drunk. City lights lay out before us, and your arm felt nice wrapped ‘round my shoulder. I had a feeling that I belonged. I had a feeling I could be someone—be someone, be someone.”_

“That’s how you make me feel, Eds,” Richie mumbled. “Like I could…be someone, even though I…even though I have a shitty alcoholic mom and a shitty absent dad and-and-and…”

Richie never spoke from the heart like this.

“It’s okay, Richie,” Eddie whispered.  “It’s okay.”

“Will you be my boyfriend, Eds?”

“Only if you stop calling me that,” Eddie said with a smile that told Richie he could call Eddie whatever he wanted.

***

The next day, Richie grinned as Eddie handed him a tape with a _Star Wars_ sticker on it that read “I love you” and then “I know.” He smiled wider when Eddie let him hold the other boy’s hand in the middle of the hallway. When some students noticed and pointed with mean whispers behind hands, Eddie flipped them off. Richie had never been so proud.

After school, Eddie had to help Mrs. Kaspbrak with some errands, so Richie made his way home alone. But strangely, he didn’t really feel alone. His lips still tingled where Eddie had given him a kiss

( _one for the road_ )

before waving goodbye as Eddie biked away.

He ran up the stairs to his room and dug out the mixtape Eddie had given to him. His face hurt from smiling, but he couldn’t stop. He loaded the tape and pressed “play” and then flopped down on his bed to the soundtrack of “Hungry Like the Wolf” by Duran Duran.

He breathed deep when he realized he could still smell that fresh, clean, Eddie smell on his bed where they had cuddled all yesterday afternoon. He waited as the tape cycled through Boston, Blondie, Cyndi Lauper—“I fucking knew Eddie loved ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’! I fucking _knew it_!”— Roxette, and then ‘Til Tuesday.

When Starship’s “Nothing Gonna Stop Us Now” came on, Richie felt a happy blush rising to his cheeks. He knew he probably looked so stupid—red, blotchy spots all over his cheeks, neck, and ears

( _Eddie was the one who blushed pretty, not him_ )

and a love-struck grin on his face, but he didn’t give a fuck.

_“Let ‘em say we’re crazy, I don’t care about that. Put your hand in my hand, baby. Don’t ever look back. Let the world around us just fall apart. Baby, we can make it if we’re heart to heart.”_

Richie felt like his heart was going to burst at the thought of it being joined with Eddie’s. He laughed as Toto’s “Africa” came on after.

“It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you!” Richie sang at the top of his lungs. “There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do!”

The love songs kept coming—Prince, Whitney Houston, and even Pat Benatar making an appearance. Richie felt like he kept dying and coming back to life. It was the best thing he’d ever experienced.

The last song to play caught Richie somewhat by surprise, but then, this _was_ Eddie. Why should he be surprised by Elvis?

_“Wise men say only fools rush in, but I can’t help falling in love with you. Shall I stay? Would it be a sin? If I can’t help falling in love with you?”_

Richie wasn’t stupid; he knew how people in the small town of Derry felt about boys liking other boys. He knew life was bound to get a lot harder if he and Eddie let this love between them grow.

_“Like a river flows surely to the sea. Darling, so it goes, some things are meant to be.”_

But this love was meant to be. Richie had known it somewhere deep down since he met Eddie all those years ago, even if he didn’t understand what he felt until he got older.

_“Take my hand, take my whole life, too.”_

Richie would gladly give his life to Eddie. And somehow, he knew that Eddie would return the gift. Holding Eddie’s heart in his hands… It was a heavy responsibility, he knew that. But he thought he could handle it. Could make that little hypochondriac boy who fretted about germs more than anyone Richie had ever met finally feel safe, secure. Loved. So what if Eddie’s mom had lied and had fed the other boy bullshit pills? So what if Richie’s parents were the fucking worst, never even around to give a shit in the first place? It didn’t matter if they had each other. Richie just needed Eddie to love him; it was the only love he’d ever need.

_“For I can’t help falling in love with you.”_

Richie smiled and buried his face in the sheets, breathing deep. He couldn’t wait to experience that beautiful, pure cleanliness firsthand when he saw Eddie tomorrow. He thought about sweeping Eddie into his arms and kissing him in front of everyone.

Eddie would probably kill him. Richie decided he didn’t care.

**Author's Note:**

> Richie's mixtape can be found [here](https://open.spotify.com/user/miss_melilot/playlist/6slQIfn1zILTyEpyp9F4GX).
> 
> Eddie's is [here](https://open.spotify.com/user/miss_melilot/playlist/1sQERaaGAAisZSARkY08gz).


End file.
